They provide a vital helping hand in bad weather in the Huddersfield area.

And now a group of volunteers are celebrating afer the public helped them scoop lottery funding.

The West Yorkshire 4x4 Volunteers, who ferry people such as doctors and nurses to work in in bad weather across the whole of Yorkshire, were awarded £49,000 in The Peoples Project which appeared on ITV.

One of the group’s key tasks is to ferry vital workers such as doctors and nurses to hospitals when the weather turns bad, and they proved invaluable earlier this month helping 200 people as snow hit much of the area.

“The group will use the money to fund a mobile command centre, and to expand a project providing GPS tracking to vehicles called out in the local community during severe weather, allowing control room staff to respond to any issues quickly.

West Yorkshire 4 x 4 Volunteers out in the worst of winter

“It will help us work with volunteers or care workers who are visiting patients at home, or nurses or doctors going to their place of work.”

West Yorkshire 4x4 Volunteers were formed in 2011 by an experienced group of 4x4 owners. They recognised that in adverse weather conditions such as floods, snow and ice, the local emergency and care services were struggling to get to certain areas where they would be needed.

Mr Farmer said: “We are here to assist organisations such as police, ambulance, councils and charities.

“Obviously when there is bad weather it is difficult for people such as nurses to get to work and we are there to help.

“The new project will enable us to offer an even better service to many more people”.